gconfd-2 becomes orphane when parent process crashes

[Michiel Eghuizen]

Binary package hint: gconf2

When using a thin client kind of way (Nomachine NX or LTSP), it stays running when the connection crashes for some reason or when terminating the session on the serverside. gnome-session gets killed correctly, but gconfd stays running. It won't detect that the gnome-session isn't running anymore.

I expected the process to detect when the parent dies, the process itself will close.

Process: /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2
Ubuntu release: Description: Ubuntu 8.04.1
                        Release: 8.04
Package:
gconf2:
  Installed: 2.22.0-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 2.22.0-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 2.22.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

process list (1000 is here a user id):
# ps aux | grep 1000
1000 29763 0.0 0.0 35596 5796 ? S 20:00 0:00 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2 5
root 30857 0.0 0.0 5164 848 pts/0 S+ 20:12 0:00 grep 1000

strace log:
restart_syscall(<... resuming interrupted call ...>) = 0
poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 3, 15) = 0
poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 3, 0) = 0
poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 3, 692) = 0
poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 3, 0) = 0
poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 3, 29307) = 0
poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 3, 30000) = 0
poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 3, 30000) = 0
poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 3, 0) = 0
....

Workaround: running `gconftool-2 --shutdown` as the owner of the gconfd-2 process, will close it though. But the process needs to close by itself.

[Jordan Erickson (lns)]

Please also see http://logicalnetworking.net/other/watchdog.txt and search for all instances of 'gconfd-2' . Seems that it is pretty common for it to hang around upon normal exit of an LTSP TC session, which package "gnome-watchdog" sees and forcefully kills to keep stale processes to a minimum.

[Michiel Eghuizen (michieleghuizen)]

The same kind of bug on the Gnome bugzilla: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=534485

If anyone has the same bug, please confirm it there also.

[Jordan Erickson (lns)]

This bug causes LTSP users grief without a stale process 'cleanup' program such as gnome-watchdog. It will cause unexpected behavior when logged out (thus the gconfd-2 process stays alive) and logging back in, as there is conflicting processes, causing crashes and other unexpected GNOME behavior. It should be treated with a higher priority as it affects virtually all LTSP users.